Agency says housekeeping could have prevented refinery blast

BEN EVANS

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Associated Press Writer

Proper upkeep probably would have prevented the deadly explosion last month at a Georgia sugar refinery where witnesses reported snow-like accumulations of industrial dust, a federal safety official said Wednesday.

The Feb. 7 accident at the Imperial Sugar outside Savannah fits a widely understood pattern of dust explosions, said William Wright, a member of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. He said the blast, which killed 12 people, adds weight to the case for new safety rules that his agency recommended in 2006.

"These tragedies are preventable," Wright told the House Education and Labor Committee. He urged lawmakers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to enact new standards quickly.

But the assistant labor secretary who heads OSHA said current rules cover dust hazards and rushing to put new regulations in place will not necessarily make workplaces safer.

"The existence of a standard does not ensure that tragedies will be eliminated," Edwin Foulke said. "We do not yet know whether noncompliance was a factor at Imperial Sugar."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah, offered similar warnings and said Congress should allow more time to study the issue.

But Wright and Amy Beasley Spencer, an engineer with the National Fire Protection Association, long recognized for its voluntary guidelines on combustible dust, said such accidents are well understood among experts and that OSHA's rules are too vague to address the threat adequately.

Wright said preliminary findings from his agency's investigation show the company had no formal program adhering to association standards for reducing dust risks. Also, employees received little training on the hazard.

Witnesses have reported that thick layers of dust accumulated on flat surfaces, such as joints and pipes, throughout the plant, he said. When triggered, the dust can ignite like gunpowder and probably served as fuel in a series of explosions at the plant.

In a 2006 study, the Chemical Safety Board identified 281 industrial dust fires and explosions between 1980 and 2005 that caused 119 deaths and more than 718 injuries.

OSHA has declined to act on the board's recommendation for new regulations. The agency did put in place similar standards governing grain industry dust in the 1980s; accidents have fallen sharply since.

The House committee chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., have introduced legislation that would force OSHA to set new rules. Miller said OSHA's reluctance follows a pattern of neglect under the Bush administration, which he said has chosen to rely on voluntary compliance.

"I just see such an incredible lack of urgency on your part. It's astounding," he told Foulke. "You're here clinging to what you've done in the past … and it's turned out to be fatal."

Imperial Sugar's chief executive, John Sheptor, said in a statement after the hearing that the company had a comprehensive maintenance program that included specific focus on dust.

"Dust hazards were taken very seriously at the plant," Sheptor said. The company is working with authorities to "pursue standards that benefit from the lessons of this tragedy," he said.